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EAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES 






ALTEMUS’ FAIRY-TALES SERIES 


THE MAGIC BED 

A Book of East Indian 
Fairy-Tales 

EDITED with an INTRODUCTION 

By Hartwell James 

WITH FORTY ILLUSTR*ATIONS 
By JOHN R. NEILL 




PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 




Altemus’ 

Illustrated 

Fairy-Tales Series 


The Magic Bed 

A Book of East Indian Tales 
The Cat and the Mouse 

A Book of Persian Tales 
The Jeweled Sea 

A Book of Chinese Tales 
The Magic Jaw Bone 

A Book of South Sea Islands Tales 
The Man Elephant 

A Book of African Tales 
The Enchanted Castle 

A Book of Tales from Flower Land 


Fifty Cents Each 


Copyright, igo6 

By Henry Altemus 


X' X- 


LIBRARY ofCONGRE 
Two Cooies Receive 

JUL 14 1906 

0 Copyrieftt Entry 



I 



Introduction 


India is undoubtedly the home of the fairy-tale. 
Of those now in existence, probably one-third of 
them came from India. Gypsies, missionaries, 
travelers, and traders carried them to other coun- 
tries where they were told and retold until much 
of their original form was obliterated, and many of 
their titles lost. 

The ''Jatakas,” or birth-stories of Buddha, form 
the earliest collection of fairy-tales in the world, 
and were gathered together more than two thou- 
sand years before the Brothers Grimm — well and 
justly beloved of children — began to write the 
[V] 


INTRODUCTION 

stories which have delighted a world of readers, 
young and old. 

It is from these, and from others told by native 
nurses, or ayahs, to children in India — where the 
belief in fairies, gnomes, ogres, and monsters is 
still widespread — ^that five stories most likely to 
interest young people have been selected to form 
this volume. They are stories which have aroused 
the wonder and laughter of thousands of children 
in the far East, and can hardly fail to produce the 
same effect upon the children of America. 

H. J. 



[Vi] 



The Magic Bed 13 

The Wise Jackal 35 

The Four Brothers . 59 

The Fish Prince 79 

The Talking Turtle 97 



[vii] 


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Page 

The Princess Lalun Frontispiece 

“ A tiger stood roaring ” 15 

“ Sitting under a tree ” 17 

“ ‘ Cannot I have supper with you ? ’ ” 19 

“ Spread it gently over the Princess ” 21 

“ The Prince told her who he was ” 23 

“ ‘The Princess sits on the roof’ ” 24 

“ The Rajah sent for the Prince ”... 25 

“ His tigers came in ” 27 

“He beat the kettle-drum loudly” 29 

“They came to a beautiful palace” ..34 

“ ‘ I am going to run away ’ ” 37 

“ They found a beautiful marble tank ” 39 

“Nala cried out ‘Oh, oh ! ’ ” 41 

“ The Rakshas is on his way home ” 45 

“Twined red lotus flowers in her hair” 49 

“ ‘They are my father’s flowers’ ” 51 

“ A diamond shining in his forehead ” 58 

[ix] 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

“ The monkeys taught him to climb trees ” 63 

“ All the animals loved him ” 65 

“ Four men cutting up a deer ” ' . 67 

“ Chimo dropped the firebrand ” 69 

“ ‘Have you got husbands for us ? ’ ” .... 71 

“ Their clothes on their heads ” 73 

“ ‘You have broken my enchantment ’ ” 78 

“ ‘ The kingdom ought to be mine ’ ” 80 

“ Threw some powder on his head ” 81 

“ He was caught in a net ” 82 

“ The Queen became fond of him ” 83 

“ ‘ I will find yoU a wife at once ’ ” . 85 

“ ‘You can take her and welcome’ ” 87 

“ The cobra put out his seven heads ” 88 

“ ‘ I want to see my wife ! ’ ” 89 

“ Changed into a handsome prince ” 91 

“ ‘Two wild ducks are carrying a turtle!* ” 96 

“ ‘ Tells the cranes where our hiding-places are ’ ” 99 

“ ‘Where are you going?’ he asked” loi 

“ Hanging from the stick by his mouth ” 103 

“ Hazar ran to pick him up ” 105 

“ A golden turtle was set up in the palace ” 107 




THE MAGIC BED 






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The Magic Bed 

The Ant- King extols the beauty of the Princess Lalun^ the 
Tiger gives the Prince the best of advice, and by the 
aid of the Magic Bed wonderful things occur. 

NE very hot day, a young Prince, or 
Rajah as they are called in India, 
had been hunting all the morning 
in the jungle, and by noon had lost 
sight of his attendants. So he sat 
down under a tree to rest and to eat 
some cakes which his mother had given him. 
When he broke the first one he found an ant in 
[ 13 ] 



THE MAGIC BED 


it. In the second there were two ants, in the third, 
three, and so on until in the sixth there were six 
ants and the Ant- King himself. 

“I think these cakes belong to you more than 
they do to me,” said the Prince to the Ant-King. 
“Take them all, for I am going to sleep.” 

After a while the Ant-King crawled up to the 
Prince’s ear as he lay there dreaming, and said, 
“We are much obliged for the cakes and have eaten 
them up. What can we do for you in return?” 

“I have everything I need,” replied the Prince in 
his sleep. “I cannot spend all the money I have, 
I have more jewels than I can wear, and more serv- 
ants than I can count, and I am tired of them all.” 

“You would never be tired of the Princess 
Lalun,” replied the Ant-King. “You should seek 
her, for she is as lovely as the morning.” 

When the young Prince awoke, the ants were all 
gone; and he was very sorry for this, because he 
remembered what the Ant-King had said about the 
Princess Lalun. 

“The only thing for me to do,” he said to himself. 


THE MAGIC BED 


‘‘is to find out in what country this princess lives.” 

So he rode on through the jungle until sundown, 
and there beside a pool a tiger stood roaring. 

“Are you hungry?” asked the Prince. “What is 
the matter?” 



“I am not hungry, but I have a thorn in my foot 
which hurts me very much,” replied the tiger. 

Then the Prince jumped off his horse and looked 
at the tiger’s foot. Then he pulled out the thorn 
and bound some healing leaves over the wound 
with a piece of cloth which he tore off his turban. 

[ 15 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


Just as he was ready to mount his horse again, a 
tigress came crashing through the jungle. 

“How nice !” she cried. “Here is a* man and we 
can eat him.” 

“No, indeed,” replied her husband. “He has 
been very good to me. He has taken a thorn out of 
my foot and I am grateful to him. If he wants help 
at any time, we must give it to him.” 

“We would much better eat him,” grumbled the 
tigress, but her husband growled so in reply that 
she bounded off into the deep jungle. 

Then the Prince asked the tiger if he could tell 
him the shortest way to Princess Lalun’s country, 
and the tiger told him it was across three ranges of 
hills and through seven jungles. 

“But,” said the tiger, “there is a fakir or holy 
beggar in the next jungle to this, and he has a 
magic bed which will carry you anywhere you wish 
to go. Besides this, he has a bag which will give 
you whatever you ask for, and a stone bowl which 
will fill itself with water as often as you ask it. 

[ 16 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


If you can get these things you certainly can find 
the Princess Lalun.” 

Then the Prince was very much pleased and set 



out to find the fakir. He found him sitting under 
a tree on the edge of the jungle, his bed on one 
side of him and the bag and bowl on the other side. 
The fakir sat very still for a long time when he 

Z—The Magic Bed [ 17 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


heard what the Prince wanted, and then he asked, 
“Why do you seek the Princess Lalun?” 

“Because I want to marry her,’’ replied the Prince 
very earnestly. 

“Look into my eyes while I hold your hands,” 
said the fakir, and as the Prince did so, he saw that 
he was one who could be trusted. 

Then the fakir agreed to lend him the things 
and to take care of his horse until the Prince came 
back. 

“Now lie down on the bed and wish yourself in 
the Princess Lalun’s country,” said the fakir, and, 
taking the bag and the stone bowl in his hands, 
the Prince stretched himself on the bed. 

Then the Prince said, “Take me to Princess La- 
lun’s country,” and no sooner had he spoken, than 
off he went, over the seven jungles and over the 
three ranges of hills, and in less than a minute he 
was set down within the borders of the kingdom 
where the Princess Lalun lived. 

The name of the Princess’s father was Afzal, and 
he was the king or Rajah of that country. So many 
[ 18 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


princes had sought his daughter in marriage that 
he was tired of saying “No” to them. Then he tried 
the plan of giving them impossible tasks to do and 



so getting rid of them in that way, but still they 
kept coming, and at last Rajah Afzal concluded to 
keep foreigners out of his kingdom altogether. So 
[ 19 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


he issued an edict that no one was to give a night’s 
lodging to a stranger. 

So when the Prince came to an old woman’s cot- 
tage and asked if he might spend the night there, 
she told him that the Rajah would not allow it. 

‘‘Cannot I bring my bed into your garden and 
sleep there?” he asked. “And cannot I have sup- 
per with you?” 

“I have nothing for supper but rice,” said the 
old woman, shaking her head. But the Prince 
pleaded so hard to let him come in that she con- 
sented, and he put his bag on her table. 

Then he spoke to the bag. “Bag, I want some- 
thing to eat!” and all at once the bag opened and 
there was a fine supper for two people. So the old 
woman ate with the Prince. The food was delicious 
and was served on gold plates with gold spoons. 

When they were done eating, the old woman said 
she would go to the well for some water. 

“You need not do that,” said the Prince, and then 
he tapped the bowl with his finger. “Bowl!” he 
cried, “I want water!” At once the bowl filled 
[ 20 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


with water and the old woman washed the gold 
plates and spoons. 

“If you will let me stay with you a little while,” 
said the Prince, “you may have the plates and 



spoons for your own.” Then he ordered the bowl 
to fill with water again and washed his hands in it. 

Then the Prince said, “My bowl gives me all 
the water I want, and my bag gives me everything 
[ 21 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


else I ask for. They belong to a holy fakir, and 
he might be angry if you turned his things out of 
the house to-night.” 

The old woman sat very quiet for a long time 
and then she said, “The anger of a Rajah is some- 
thing to be dreaded, but that of a fakir might be 
far worse.” 

“Did you count them?” asked the Prince. “There 
are twelve gold plates and twelve gold spoons.” 
The old woman nodded, and put them away under 
her bed. “ Y ou may stay,” she said, “but be careful 
that the Rajah’s soldiers do not catch you.” 

By this time it was night and the Prince and the 
old woman sat in darkness, for there was no lamp 
in the house. “The Rajah does not allow lamps to 
be used,” she said. “His daughter, the Princess 
Lalun, sits on the roof of her palace at night and 
shines so that she lights up the whole country.” 

Just then a beautiful silver radiance filled the 
room, and when the Prince stepped outside he saw 
that the Princess was sitting on the roof of her 
[ 22 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


palace. Her saree or dress was of silver gauze, 
and her dark hair floated almost to her feet. 

She wore a band of diamonds and pearls across 
her head, and the light that came from her was 



as beautiful as that of the sun and the moon and 
the stars together. 

“The Ant-Rajah was right,” said the Prince. 
“Her beauty turns darkness into light, and night 
[231 


THE MAGIC BED 



into day. I should never be 
weary of the Princess Lalun.” 

At midnight the Princess 
came down from her roof and 
went to her room. Then the 
Prince sat down on his bed 
with his bag in his hand. 
'‘Bed,” said he, “take me to 
the Princess’s palace !” So 
the bed took him where she 
lay fast asleep. Then he 
shook the bag. “Bag,” he 
said, “I want a lovely shawl, 
embroidered in red and blue 
and gold!” The bag gave 
it to him and he spread it 
gently over the Princess. 
Then the bed carried him 
back to the old woman’s cot- 
tage. 

The bag gave the Prince 
and the old woman breakfast 


[ 24 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


and dinner and supper the next day, and when 
night came the Princess again sat on the roof. 
This time her saree was of white silk covered with 
diamond butterflies, and she shone more gloriously 
than before. 



At midnight the Princess went to her room again, 
and then the Prince told his bed to take him again 
to the palace. He said to his bag, ‘‘Bag, I want a 
very beautiful ring!’’ The bag gave him a ring 
set with rubies, which he slipped on the Princess’s 
[ 25 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


hand as she lay asleep, and then when she woke 
the Prince told her who he was. 

When the Princess saw what a noble, handsome 
young man he was, and heard that he was the son 
of a great Rajah, and that he was the one who had 
brought her the magnificent shawl the night before, 
she fell in love with him and said she would tell her 
father and mother that she wanted him for her 
husband. Then the Prince went back to the old 
woman’s cottage. 

The Rajah Afzal, Princess Lalun’s father, sent 
for the Prince the next day, and told him he might 
marry the Princess because she wished it. 

“But first,” said he, “you must do this for me. 
Here are eighty pounds of mustard-seed, and you 
must crush the oil out of them in one day.” 

“It is impossible,” said the Prince as he went 
away from the palace. “How can I do it?” And 
when the old woman heard of it she said, “It is 
quite impossible. Only an army of ants could 
do it.” 

Then the Prince thought of the Ant-Rajah, and 

[ 26 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


at the very minute he thought of him, the Ant- 
Rajah and all his ants crept under the door and 
into the room. 

“If I do not crush all the oil out of this mustard- 
seed before to-morrow morning, I cannot marry 



the Princess Lalun,’’ the Prince said, showing the 
bag to the Ant-Rajah. 

“We will attend to it for you,” replied the Ant- 
Rajah. “Go to sleep and leave it to us.” When 
the Prince awoke in the^^orning there was not a 
[ 27 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


drop of oil left in the mustard-seed, and with a 
light heart he took it to the King. 

“That is very good, indeed,” said Rajah Afzal, 
“but I have something else for you to do. One 
day when I was out in the hills I caught two 
demons, and I have them here shut up in a cage, 
I want them killed, because they may break out 
some day and harm my people. You may marry 
the Princess Lalun if you can kill them.” 

“How can I fight two demons?” the Prince asked 
the old woman when he was back in her cottage. 

“Only a couple of tigers could do it,” replied 
the old woman ; and as soon as the Prince remem- 
bered his tigers they came in at the door. 

“Take us to the King,” said the tiger. 

When the Prince asked the Rajah if the tigers 
might fight the two demons, he said they might 
do so, for he was very anxious to get rid of the 
demons. So all the court went to see the fight, 
and the tigers killed the demons. 

But when the Prince said, “Now you will give 
me your daughter,” Rajah Afzal replied, “There 
[ 28 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


is only one thing more. If you can beat my kettle- 
drum you shall marry the Princess Lalun.” 



“Up there in the sky,” replied the Rajah. 

“I don’t know how I can get up into the sky,” 
[ 29 ] 


THE MAGIC BED 


sighed the Prince. “This is the hardest task of 
all.” So he went back to the cottage and said to 
the old woman, “My ants crushed his oil, my tigers 
killed his demons, but who is to get up into the 
sky and beat his kettle-drum?” 

“You are rather stupid,” said the old woman. 
“If your bed carried you across seven jungles and 
over three ranges of hills, don’t you think it can 
take you up into the sky?” 

“It is very singular I never thought of that,” 
cried the Prince, and then he sat down upon his 
little bed. Up into the sky it flew, where he beat 
the kettle-drum so loudly with the handle of his 
hunting-knife that the King heard him. 

“The wedding shall take place as soon as you 
like,” said the Rajah when the Prince came down 
again ; and so the Prince sent the bed and the bowl 
and the bag back to the fakir. 

Then invitations to the wedding were sent to all 
the kings and queens of the neighboring countries ; 
and after they were married the Prince took the 
Princess Lalun home to his own country. 

[ 30 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 



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The Wise Jackal 

Showing how the Rajah' s daughters ran away from hornet 
how they got into trouble in consequence, and 
how the jackal helped them. 

NCE there were two princesses 
whose father, the Rajah, was too 
busy with affairs of state to look 
after them. They were lonely and 
neglected, for they had a step- 
mother who treated them very 
cruelly. They lived in a beautiful palace, but noth- 
ing was done to make them happy or contented, 
[ 35 ] 



THE WISE JACKAL 


for even the servants were afraid of the Rajah’s 
second wife. 

“I am going to run away,” said the elder prin- 
cess to her sister. “Will you go with me, Dehra !” 

“Where can we go?” replied Dehra. 

“There are a great many places where we can 
go,” said Nala, “but first we will go into the jungle. 
We will make a little house of tree branches and 
have beds of grass and flowers and there will be 
plenty of fruit to eat.” 

“I will put on my blue silk saree,” said Dehra, 
“and my pearl necklace, and you must wear your 
yellow silk and your rubies, and then if we meet 
any one they will know we are princesses.” 

“If we wear our jewels people may steal us,” 
replied Nala. “W.e would better tie them in a cor- 
ner of our sarees. We will wear our bangles, 
though, for all girls wear them.” 

The sarees that the princesses wore were long 
lengths of silk which they wound about their waists 
and then brought over their heads. They were 
not at all like the dresses American girls wear, but 
[ 36 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


they were of beautiful material and Nala and Dehra 
looked very fine in them. 

So the little princesses went a long way into the 
jungle, where they found all the fruit they wished 



to eat, and were happier than they had been for 
a long time, watching the green parrots flash in 
and out between the trees and the monkeys chat- 
tering as they swung from bough to bough. 

[ 37 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


After a while they came to a beautiful white 
marble palace with a great gateway standing wide 
open, and over it was written in golden letters: 

” Enter, N ala, do not fear; 

Silver and gold await you here** 

But the words changed as soon as they had read 
them into these : 

''Follow her, Dehra; you shall see 
How kind and cruel Fate can he** 

The sisters looked at each other, and then Dehra 
said, ‘T do not think mine is as nice a verse as 
yours, Nala. It makes me feel shivery.*’ 

‘Tt frightens me a little, too,” replied Nala. ‘T 
wonder if this palace belongs to a Rakshas.” 

Now a Rakshas is a kind of ogre, and no one 
but a Rakshas would have built such a beautiful 
palace in the middle of a jungle. 

‘Tf it does, he may come back at any time and 
eat us up,” said Dehra, more alarmed than ever. 
“Let us go away.” 

“The Rakshas has gone away,” said a little jackal 
[ 38 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


with a friendly face, who came running up to the 
princesses, “and you can stay in his palace for quite 
a while. I will let you know when he is coming 
back.” 



So the princesses went through the great gate* 
way and across the courtyard into the palace, where 
they found gold and jewels and lovely silk dresses, 

[ 39 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


and a beautiful marble tank filled with the clearest 
of water, where they could bathe every day. 

Red lotus leaves floated on the water, and the 
sisters twined some of them in their hair, for the 
red lotus is a royal flower and princesses may wear 
them. 

'‘If any stranger comes here,” said Nala, “and 
asks for food or a drink of water, when you arc 
alone in the house, be sure to smear your face 
with charcoal and put on some ragged clothes to 
make yourself look ugly before you let them in.” 

“Why must I do this?” asked Dehra. 

“Because if they see how pretty you are they 
will take you away and we shall not see each other 
any more.” 

“You rnust do the same then,” said Dehra, “for 
you are prettier than I,” and then the princesses 
looked over the edge of the tank at their reflections 
in the water. Both were lovely, but Nala was a 
little taller than her sister and a little more graceful. 
Both had beautiful complexions, with teeth like 
pearls and eyes that shone like stars. 

[ 40 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


.One day while Dehra was in the jungle talking 
to their friend the jackal, a prince who had been 
out hunting came to the palace and asked for 



water, as he and his attendants were very hot and 
thirsty. But before Nala went to see what they 
wanted she covered her silk dress with a ragged 
one and made her face dirty with charcoal. 

When the Prince’s attendants saw a dirty-faced, 
[ 41 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


ragged girl admit them to such a beautiful palace, 
they laughed outright, but the Prince said to him- 
self, her face and hands were clean and her 
clothes mended, she would be a very pretty girl.” 

Neither Nala nor the Prince could understand 
each other, but at last she made out that he was 
thirsty, so she hastened to bring him a pitcher of 
water. But instead of drinking the water, the 
Prince threw a part of it over Nala's head and 
face ! 

Very much surprised, Nala cried out, ‘‘Oh, oh!” 
and started back, but the charcoal was washed 
from her face, and there she stood, the loveliest 
maiden the Prince had ever seen, even in her ragged 
dress, and he fell in love with her at once. 

He unfastened the ragged dress and it fell off, 
leaving her prettier than ever in her yellow saree 
and a string of great rubies around her neck. 

“My father is a Rajah,” said the Prince, “and 
I am going to take you to his palace, and you shall 
be my wife.” 

Then a beautiful palanquin was brought and 

[ 42 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


Nala was carefully placed in it and carried away 
from the Rakshas’ palace. On they went through 
the jungle, and the frightened Princess could only 
pull aside the curtains and look out upon the Prince 
riding ahead on his white horse, while the monkeys 
swung from the boughs and the parrots darted in 
and out among the branches as they had done on 
the day when she and her sister had run away from 
their cruel stepmother. 

She was very unhappy and sobbed out, ‘‘Oh, 
Dehra, Dehra ! I want you, and what will you do 
without me?’’ 

And then Nala began to think how she should 
let her sister know the way the Prince had taken 
her, so she tore a little piece off her saree and 
wrapped one of her rubies in it and dropped it on 
the ground. 

She kept on doing this every little while until 
only one ruby was left, but they had now come to 
the palace of the Rajah and Ranee, the Prince’s 
father and mother. 

“Follow her, Dehra,” she remembered the golden 
[ 43 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


letters had said, and so Nala dropped the last of 
her rubies just outside the palace, saying to herself, 
“If Dehra does follow me, the rubies will lead her 
to me.” 

The Prince’s father and mother welcomed the 
beautiful Princess very gladly. The Rajah gave 
her a new ruby necklace and the Ranee was de- 
lighted at the prospect of such a beautiful daugh- 
ter-in-law. In a week they were married and 
every one was very kind to Nala. 

But poor Dehra sat in the Rakshas’ palace cry- 
ing as if her heart would break. “Nala, Nala! 
where are you?” she cried over and over again, 
but no one answered her. 

Then she went out of the palace, past the tank 
where the red lotus flowers lay on the clear water, 
saying to herself, “Some one has stolen her.” 

Then she looked at the golden letters over the 
gate. 


Follow her, Dehra; you shall see 
How kind and cruel Fate can he** 
[ 44 ] 


JHE WISE JACKAL 


“Half of it is surely true,” she said aloud, and 
suddenly, from behind her, the jackal asked, 
“Which half is true?” 



“Fate has not been kind yet, so it must be the 
last part,” sobbed Dehra. 

“I think that is very ungrateful of you,” said 
the jackal. “Here you have been living comfort- 

[ 45 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


ably in a beautiful palace for some time. I am 
not sure that it is nice of you to complain that you 
have had no luck at all.” 

Dehra began to cry. 

“But that is not what I came to tell you,” the 
jackal added. “The Rakshas is on his way home 
and you will have to go away.” 

He was a very wise jackal, so he went on. “It 
is sure to come out all right, and I will help you 
to find your sister.” 

So they went, right away, into the jungle, and 
pretty soon the jackal’s sharp eyes saw the first 
ruby, wrapped in its yellow silk, lying on the grass. 
And soon after that they found another, and then 
another, and by and by they came out of the jungle. 

“I shall have to leave you here,” said the jackal. 
“There are towns out here in the open country, and 
where there are towns there are men, and men do 
not like jackals.” 

“But what shall I do?” asked Dehra. 

“I will help you to make yourself look like an 
old woman,” replied the jackal. “You will have 

[ 46 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


to do something of the kind or some one will carry 
you off and you will never find your sister.” 

Then the jackal showed Dehra a plant which 
she rubbed on her face and made it an ugly brown, 
and then he showed her how to make her face 



look wrinkled. Then he went to a little house not 
far away* and stole a coarse red saree which an 
old woman had hung on a bush to dry after wash- 
ing it. 

“Where did you get this?” asked Dehra, as the 

[ 47 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


jackal brought it to her in his mouth; and the 
jackal told her it was growing on a bush. So 
Dehra put it on and went slowly along the road 
like an old woman. 

Every little while she found one of Nala’s rubies, 
and then they would be a long way apart, but at 
last she came to the city where Nala was, and 
found the last ruby by the gate of the Rajah’s 
palace. Then she sat down not very far away and 
wondered how she could get inside the palace. 

As night came on, the wife of a laboring man 
took pity on the poor old woman, as she supposed 
Dehra to be, and let her sleep in a hut in her gar- 
den. Now this garden was very near the palace 
grounds, in which was a marble bathing-tank cov- 
ered with red lotus flowers. 

When Dehra saw this beautiful place, she said 
to herself, ‘T will bathe there every morning. I 
will go very early, so as not to be seen.” 

So Dehra left her hut very early and bathed in 
the beautiful tank, and all the brown stain and all 
the wrinkles came off her face. She washed the 
[ 48 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


old saree and hung it on a 
tree, and then put on her own 
blue silk saree and her neck- 
lace of pearls. Then she sat 
on the steps of the tank and 
twined some of the red lotus 
flowers in her hair. 

“It makes me feel like my- 
self again,” she thought, as 
she looked down at her re- 
flection in the water. But the 
royal lotus flowers made her 
think of Nala, and she longed 
more than ever to see her. 

After Dehra had bathed in 
the palace gardens for sev- 
eral mornings, his servants 
told the Rajah that some of 
his beautiful lotus flowers dis- 
appeared each day before 
sunrise. This made the Rajah 
very angry and he said he 



4 — The Magic Bed [ 49 ] 



THE WISE JACKAL 


would offer a reward for the capture of this thief. 

Then the Rajah’s second son, who was a very 
handsome young prince, said to his father, ‘‘You 
need not do that. I will capture the thief without 
any reward.” 

“He will do it easily,” said the Ranee, who was 
very proud of her son. 

So that night the Prince walked about the palace 
garden for a long time, but at last he was so sleepy 
that he lay down near the bathing-place and did 
not awake until the sun was just rising. 

Leaning against the steps of the marble tank 
was a lovely girl dressed in blue silk with a chain 
of pearls around her neck and red lotus flowers in 
her hair. 

The Prince jumped up quickly, exclaiming, “You 
cannot be the thief !” 

“I did not mean to be a thief,” faltered Dehra. 

“They are my father’s flowers and you can have 
more of them if you wish,” said the Prince without 
taking his eyes off her lovely face. 

“Oh, no!” said Dehra, running to get the old 
[ 50 ] 









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THE WISE JACKAL 


red cotton saree. ‘Tlease do not tell any one you 
have seen me.” 

‘‘You must have come from Nala's country,” 
replied the Prince, “for you talk as she does.” 

The old woman’s dress dropped from Dehra’s 
hands. 

“Is Nala here, and do you talk to her?” she 
asked. It had been so long since she had heard 
her sister’s name spoken that it seemed like listen- 
ing to sweet music. 

“Indeed, Nala is here,” said the Prince. “She 
is my brother’s wife and we all love her. She is 
so beautiful that she is called the ‘Star of the 
Palace,’ but you are prettier than she is.” 

At these words all Dehra’s fear left her, and 
when the Prince said, “Let us go and find Nala,” 
she let him take her hand and lead her into the 
palace, where every one said, “She is exactly like 
our young Rajah’s wife !” 

Then the Prince led Dehra into the presence of 
the Rajah and Ranee, and there she told them that 
she was Nala’s sister and how she had come a long, 
[ 53 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


weary way in search of her. Then the Prince asked 
permission to marry Dehra, and his father and 
mother were so pleased with the beautiful girl that 
they said he might do so as soon as he liked. 

Then Dehra was taken to a beautiful room, hung 
with silk curtains and lighted by jewelled lamps. 
Nala was dressed in the richest silks and jewels, 
as the wife of a young Rajah should be, but there 
was a look of sadness on her beautiful face, for she 
was thinking of the sister from whom she had been 
separated so long. 

‘*Oh, Dehra!” she said, as she looked up and 
saw her sister standing before her. “Oh, Dehra! 
Fate has been kind at last.” And then the sisters 
kissed each other again and again, and when Nala 
heard that Dehra was to marry her husband’s 
brother and all live together in the palace, she could 
hardly believe that it was true. 

Then Dehra said, “The jackal told me that 
everything would come out right in the end, and 
so it has.” 

“He is a nice jackal,” replied Nala. “The golden 
[ 54 ] 


THE WISE JACKAL 


letters over the gateway to the Rakshas* palace 
ought to be changed to : 

'Seek long, seek far, and you shall £nd 
To patient seekers Fate is kind,* 

and if he were here I would ask him to have it 
done.” 



[ 55 ] 



THE FOUR BROTHERS 







vl 




The Four Brothers 

delating hoiv a baby with a diamond in his forehead grew 
to be a man^ and what he did for his brothers. 

N the very heart of the jungle there 
stood a very old tree. It was older 
than any other tree there and had 
seen many wonderful things. It 
was very wise, too, and knew many 
secrets. 

Every spring it put out fresh green leaves and 
lovely white blossoms, but one year the flowers 

[ 59 ] 



THE FOUR BROTHERS 


were more beautiful than ever, and among them, 
on one of the lower branches, was a bud which 
hung there like a silver globe among the green 
leaves. 

“I wonder why that bud is so much larger than 
the others,” said the rose-apple tree, who had a 
great deal of curiosity. 

‘‘It holds a secret,” replied the fig-tree, who 
was quite a gossip and loved to talk to the other 
trees. 

“But when shall we know the secret?” asked 
the rose-apple tree. 

“In the middle of the night there will be a thun- 
der-storm and then the bud will open. You will 
see it by the lightning.” 

But when the storm came and the thunder roared 
and the lightning flashed, the rose-apple tree was 
afraid and dared not look up. But the fig-tree 
watched the grand old tree stretch its branches 
out bravely to the tempest, and in the midst of it 
saw the white bud burst open as the third bough 
laid it gently on the ground. 

[ 60 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


Inside the flower lay the prettiest little baby 
ever seen, curled up as if asleep, as lovely as a 
flower himself, and then his eyes opened and he lay 
smiling at the sky and watching the blue-white 
lightning flashing across it. 

Then when morning came and all around was 
bright and calm and still once more, the baby put 
out his tiny hand and played with the flowers. 

‘‘He must be a wonderful baby,” said the fig- 
tree. “See his little white silk shirt; it is just the 
color of the flower in which he was bom, and look, 
he has a diamond shining in his forehead!” 

“Perhaps it is a star and not a diamond,” said 
the rose-apple tree; but because of its brightness 
it could not tell which it was. 

Then the humming-birds and the parrots and 
the monkeys and the jackals all came to look at 
the baby. “He would be better off if he had wings 
like mine,” said a humming-bird. 

“Or if he had plumage like mine,” said a parrot. 

“Fur like mine would be much better for him,” 
added a jackal ; but they all agreed that he was a 
[611 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


very wonderful baby, or he would not have a star 
in his forehead. 

By and by the child cried just a little bit, for he 
was hungry, but the fig-tree bent a bough and 
dropped honey into his mouth, and then he smiled 
again. 

And then when sunset came a tigress stole 
quietly up to the child. 

‘T ’ll bring my cubs here,” she said to herself. 
“He will do for their supper.” But the flowers 
and the grasses covered him up so that she could 
not find him when she came back again. 

“We will not let any harm come to him,” said 
the flowers and the grasses. “He is our baby.” 

“What shall we call him?” asked the trees, and 
the old tree which had borne the beautiful bud 
said, “His name is Nazim, and you must all of you 
take care of him and teach him the secrets of the 
jungle.” 

And so as Nazim grew up, the trees and the wild 
flowers and all the creatures in the jungle taught 
him all they knew. The monkeys taught him how 
[ 62 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


to climb trees, and Dame, the great turtle who 
lived in the river, taught him how to swim. 

The humming-birds showed him where the wild 
fruits grew and which of the blossoms had honey 
in their cups; and he learned to know the herbs 



which would heal bruises, and how to charm the 
jungle snakes, and many other things which chil- 
dren who live in houses never know. 

[ 63 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


Early every morning he bathed in the river, 
hanging his white silk shirt to dry on a tree, and 
at night he slept in a hammock under the fig-tree, 
which the flowers made for him of their twining 
tendrils. 

He became a tall and beautiful boy, as good and 
gentle as he was strong and fearless, and as for 
clothes, his white silk shirt grew as he grew and 
never wore out or wanted mending. All the ani- 
mals in the jungle loved him, even the tigress who 
had wanted her cubs to eat him when he was a 
baby. 

One day Nazim said to the old tree, “There are 
a great many parrots and jackals and monkeys. 
Are there no others like me; is there only one 
Nazim?” 

And the old tree asked, “Why do you want to 
know?” And Nazim replied wistfully, “I should 
like to see them.” 

Then the old tree said, “Climb to my topmost 
branch, and tell me what you see;” and when 
[ 64 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


Nazim had done this he cried out, “I see a hill with 
a very sharp point.” 

‘'Near the top of that hill, which is the needle- 
shaped hill, is a tree covered with bright pink blos- 



soms. It is called Kidsadita,” said the old tree. 
“Go up to it and smell the flowers and ask where 
the Four Brothers are.” 

So through the jungle Nazim ran to the needle- 
shaped hill, and there was Kidsadita, the pink- 

5 — The Magic Bed 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


flowering tree. “Where are the Four Brothers?” 
he asked, as he smelt the blossoms. 

“On the other side of the hill,” said Kidsadita. 
“They are preparing their supper.” 

Then Nazim went on, around the hill, and there 
were four tall men cutting up a deer which they 
had killed. As he came near they thought they 
had never seen so beautiful a boy, and ran to meet 
him. He was indeed a beautiful boy, dressed all 
in white, the star shining in his forehead and a 
look of gentle love on his face. 

“We are four brothers; will you be the fifth?” 
they asked Nazim. “Will you be one of us?” 

“I will be your brother,” replied Nazim, “for 
that is why I came. All the creatures in the jungle 
had brothers and sisters, and I had none. I wanted 
to find some brethren.” 

Then Chimo, the youngest brother, said there 
were two things they wanted. One of these was 
fire to cook their meat, for they were obliged to 
eat the flesh of the deer raw ; and the other was a 
wife for each of them. 


[ 66 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


Then one of the other brothers said that the 
giant Rikal Gouree had a fire burning on his hearth 
and four daughters who were anxious to get mar- 
ried. They knew that he lived not very far away, 



but they had never been able to find his house, so 
they were still without wives and firebrands to light 
the wood with which to cook the deer they killed. 
‘Tf you will give me a bulrush,” said Nazim, ‘T 

[ 67 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


will show you the way to his house.” So Chimo 
brought him a bulrush and Nazim fitted it to his 
bowstring; then he bent the bow, letting the bul- 
rush fly straight to Rikal Gouree’s palace. ‘‘Follow 
my arrow,” cried Nazim. “It has cleared a path 
for you, and you shall find what you want.” 

Then the Four Brothers followed the path Na- 
zim’s arrow had made, but Chimo, who was the 
swiftest runner, came to the giant’s palace first. 

Rikal Gouree was sleeping by the fire in an im- 
mense room where the couches were twenty feet 
long and eight feet high. The fireplace was like a 
huge, red, glowing cavern in which whole tree- 
trunks lay burning instead of logs, and the ceiling 
was so high that Chimo could hardly see it. 

Chimo stole a look at the sleeping giant and then 
snatched up a firebrand and ran for the door. But 
as he passed the sleeping giant a spark from the 
brand lighted on Rikal Gouree’s hand. 

The giant sprang up with a cry of pain and 
rushed out of the house after Chimo, but could not 
catch him. In his flight Chimo dropped the fire- 
[ 68 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


brand and got back to his brothers with nothing 
to show for his trouble but a bad fright. 

“We want to leave Rikal Gouree alone,” he told 



them. “I would rather eat raw flesh all my life 
than go near that monster again.” 

Finding he could not catch Chimo, the giant went 

[ 69 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


back to his house and into the room where his wife 
and four daughters were. He was very cross, for 
he had lost his nap and the burn on his hand pained 
him. 

As soon as he had thrown himself into his great 
chair his oldest daughter asked him, “Have you 
got husbands for us yet?’* Every day one of his 
daughters asked him this question and the sulky 
old giant would reply, “No ! who can get husbands 
for four daughters all at once?” 

Then the youngest daughter asked her father 
who the young man was that she had seen running 
away from the house. He told her that while he 
was asleep a young man had come in and stolen a 
firebrand. 

“I think you did very wrong to send him away,” 
said the giant’s wife. “He would have been one 
husband at any rate, and giants’ daughters do not 
get husbands easily. Here is the arrow which came 
into the room this morning, which was a sign that 
men would soon follow it. You have done a very 
foolish thing and we shall probably suffer for it.” 

[ 70 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


Some giants’ wives are afraid of their husbands, 
but this one was not, and she went on to give her 



husband such a scolding that Rikal Gouree was 
glad to get away and go to sleep by the fire again. 
After a while the giant was awakened by beauti- 
[ 71 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


ful music which came from a tree which grew close 
to his palace wall. He lay still enjoying the sweet 
sounds, but presently they seemed to call him out- 
side, and looking up he saw Nazim sitting on one 
of the branches of the tree playing on a lute. 

Underneath the tree the dogs and cats and all 
the other animals belonging to him were listening 
to the music, and the boughs were covered with 
birds who were listening too. Presently the music 
grew so merry that Rikal Gouree held up his skirts 
and began to dance. 

“What a silly old man you are!” cried his wife 
as she came out of the house and saw what he was 
doing. “You silly old man !” But in a few minutes 
she was dancing too, holding up her saree with 
one hand like a young girl, while her bangles and 
anklets tinkled merrily. 

Then the giant called to Nazim, “Here, young 
man, come down from the tree and I will give you 
anything you want.” 

“Then you must give me your four daughters,” 
said Nazim. “Each of my four brothers wants a 
[ 72 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


wife, and you must give us, besides, a firebrand 
from your hearth.” 

‘‘I knew the arrow was a true omen,” cried the 
giant’s wife, and then his daughters came forward 



and gave Nazim his arrow, which they had kept 
very carefully. They were so pleased that they 
said good-bye to their father and mother, and tak- 
ing as many clothes and jewels as they could carry 
on their heads, they set out with Nazim. 

On they went until they came to the needle- 
[ 73 ] 


THE FOUR BROTHERS 


shaped hill where the pink-flowering tree Kidsadita 
was, and there they married the Four Brothers and 
lived very happily together. 

Nazim did not want to marry, and because he 
was better and wiser than they, the Four Brothers 
made him their king. The giant’s daughters made 
their jewels into a crown for him, but no jewel was 
as bright as the star in his forehead, which outshone 
them all. 



[ 74 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


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A Prince is changed into a fish by his cruel mother. The 
enchantment is broken by the aid of a seven- 
headed cobra, and all ends well. 

NCE there were a king and queen 
who had two sons. The older of 
the two was a very short and ugly 
man with only one eye, and that 
was in the middle of his forehead. 
His brother was tall and handsome 
and carried himself like a prince. 

Naturally the king preferred his handsome son 
[ 79 ] 



#• 


THE PISH PRINCE 


and wished to make him his heir. ‘‘My people will 
never obey a dwarf with only one eye,” he said. 

This made Deesa, the older son, very angry. 
‘The kingdom ought to be mine,” he said, “or if 
I cannot have it all it should be divided.” 



He said this to his wife, whose name was Matni, 
and as she was an enchantress she determined to 
get the whole of the kingdom for her husband if 
possible. She thought it all over and then invited 
the younger brother to a banquet in that part of 
the palace where she lived. 

[ 80 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


Then she said to her husband, 
“After supper you must sit with 
your brother on the balcony 
overlooking the river. I will 
change him into a fish and then 
you can throw him into the 
water. In this way we shall 
hear no more of him.” 

Deesa agreed to this, and 
after supper invited his brother 
to sit with him on the balcony. 
Then Matni went up on the roof 
of the palace and threw down 
some powder on the younger 
Prince’s head. Just as soon as 
she did this, the Prince was 
changed into a little fish, and his 
brother picked him up and 
threw him into the river. 

All this was done so suddenly 
that the Prince hardly knew 
what had happened to him. 

6—The Magic Bed [ 81 ] 




THE FISH PRINCE 


Over and over he turned before he struck the water, 
but when it had closed over him he found that he 
had been changed into a fish and could swim very 
nicely underneath the water. 



He seemed to know, too, that Matni had en- 
chanted him, and he wanted to get out of her way ; 
so he swam on and on until at the end of two days 
he was outside of his father’s kingdom. 

[ 82 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


Then one day he was caught in a net by some 
fishermen and taken to the palace of the king of 
that country to be served up for dinner. He was 



not very big, and one of the servants thought it 
would be much nicer to have him in a bowl than to 
cook him. 

So the servant begged for the little fish. ‘T will 

[ 83 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


take it to the Queen’s room,” she said. ‘‘She has 
no children and is sometimes very dull. This little 
fish may amuse her.” 

The Queen was very much pleased with the 
pretty little fish and became very fond of him. 
When he grew to be too large for the bowl, she had 
another one prepared for him, and fed him boiled 
rice twice every day. “He is such a dear,” she 
said, “that he shall be called Athon-Rajah, the Fish 
Prince.” 

After awhile the Fish Prince grew so big that 
the Queen had a tank made for him through which 
the clear water of the river flowed in and out. 

Then one day the Queen feared that the Fish 
Prince was not comfortable in his tank and would 
prefer to be in the beautiful shining river which 
flowed past her windows. So she said to him one 
day, “Are you quite happy here, Athon-Rajah?” 

After a moment’s thought the Fish Prince re- 
plied, “I am quite happy here, dear Queen-mother, 
but if you could get me a nice little wife I should 
[ 84 ] , 


THE FISH PRINCE 


be happier. It is really quite lonely here all by 
myself.” 

Now the Queen looked upon the Fish Prince as 
her own son, and never imagined that any girl 



would have the least objection to marrying him. So 
she said, “If you want a wife I can easily find one 
for you.” 

“But would you not like to go and swim in the 
river?” she went on. 

“Certainly not,” replied the Fish Prince. “All 

[ 85 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


I want is to have a nice little wife and live right 
here.” The answer astonished the Queen, but 
then she did not know that he was a fish only in 
appearance. 

“All right,” she said. “I will find you a wife at 
once, and have a room built in the tank for her.” 
She had the room built at once, but it was not an 
easy matter to find a wife for the Fish Prince ! 

Everybody knew that Athon-Rajah was a pet of 
the Queen’s, but for all that, they said he was a 
monster of a fish, and that all he wanted of a wife 
was to devour her. But the Queen sent messengers 
far and wide, among the rich and the poor alike, 
but found no one who was willing to give his 
daughter as a wife to the Fish Prince. 

Even the people who had eight or ten daughters 
were very polite about it, but said, “We canaot 
give one of our children to your Fish Prince.” 
Then the Queen offered a great bag of gold to any 
father who would send his daughter to be the Fish 
Prince’s wife, but nothing came of it for a long 
time. 


[ 86 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


At last a fakir or beggar-man heard of the bag 
of gold and said to the messenger, “You may have 
my eldest daughter. She cannot be worse off than 
where she is now, and the gold will make me rich.” 



“Tell me where she is?” asked the Queen’s mes- 
senger. 

“She is down by the river, washing,” said the 
man. “She is my first wife’s child, and her step- 
mother makes her do all the hard work, and will 
not give her enough to eat.” 

[ 87 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


‘‘She gets more than she deserves,” cried the 
stepmother angrily. “Much more than she de- 
serves. You can take her and welcome. We shall 



be well rid of her, and if the Fish Prince wants to 
eat her, he can do so.” 

So the messenger gave the bag of gold to the 

[ 88 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


fakir, and went down to the river, where he found 
a very pretty girl washing clothes on the edge of 
the water. She cried very much when she heard 
what his errand was, and begged him to let her 



say good-bye to an old friend before he took her 
away. 

‘‘Tell me who is this friend,” said the messenger. 
“The Queen said we were to lose no time.” And 
the girl replied, “It is a seven-headed cobra whom 
I have known ever since I was a little child.” 

[ 89 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


Still crying, the girl, whose name was Maya, ran 
along the bank, and the cobra put his seven heads 
out of the hole where he lived. 

“I know all about it,” he said. “Don’t cry. Pick 
up those three pebbles outside my hole and put 
them in your dress. When you see the Athon- 
Rajah coming, throw the first at him. If it hits 
him he will sink to the bottom of the tank.” 

Then the cobra went on. “When he rises to the 
surface, hit him with the second, and the same 
thing will happen. Throw the third pebble at him, 
and he will change from a fish into a handsome 
young prince.” 

“Then he is n’t really a fish?” asked Maya. 

“He is the son of a Rajah and is under an en- 
chantment,” replied the cobra. “But you can break 
the enchantment in the way I have told you.” 

So Maya dried her tears and went away with 
the messenger to the palace, where they showed 
her a beautiful little room that had been prepared 
for her inside the tank where the Fish Prince lived. 
Then the Queen kissed her and said, “You are just 
[ 90 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


the dear little wife I want for my Athon-Rajah.” 

Maya would have been quite happy, for every 
one was very kind to her, if it had not been for the 
thought of the cold dark water, and her fear that 



she might not be able to hit the Fish Prince with 
the pebbles. But she let them put her into the 
little room, where she sat down and waited for a 
long time, with the pebbles in her hand. 

[ 91 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


Then there was a sound of rushing water and of 
waves dashing against the door. She looked out 
and there was a huge fish swimming towards her 
with his mouth wide open! 

‘T want to see my wife !” cried the Fish Prince. 
“Unfasten the door !” 

Trembling from head to foot with fright, Maya 
opened the door and threw the first pebble, which 
went right down his throat. He sunk like a stone, 
but in a minute or two came up to the surface 
again. 

Then Maya threw the second pebble, which hit 
the Fish Prince on the head, and he sunk the 
second time. 

Maya was so nervous that she nearly missed hit- 
ting him with the third pebble, for it only touched 
the tip of his fin. This time he did not sink, but 
changed into a handsome prince, who took her in 
his arms and kissed her tenderly. 

“You have broken my enchantment!” he cried. 
“Now we can enjoy sunshine and happiness in the 
[ 92 ] 


THE FISH PRINCE 


world above, and need not live in a tank any 
longer.” 

So they were drawn up out of the water and 
taken to the palace, where no one could possibly 
live happier than Maya and the Fish Prince. 





[ 93 ] 


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THE TALKING TURTLE 





o 



The Talking Turtle 


Relates the unique and satisfactory end of a turtle who made 
mischief among the cranes y fishes y parrots and 
monkeys. The moral is obvious. 


GREAT many years ago there was 
a king who talked too much. His 
name was Badahur, and from his 
beautiful palace he ruled many mil- 
lions of people. 

There was also a turtle who was 
even fonder of talking than the King, and he lived 
in a pond in the King’s garden. 

7 — The Magic Bed 



THE TALKING TURTLE 


But for all the King was so great and so rich, 
his people did not respect him because he talked 
and talked about everything under the sun. He 
had a sort of prime-minister whose name was 
Hazar, and he was expected to say foolish things, 
of course, but the King seemed to want to say them 
all. 

When the King drove through the streets in his 
golden chariot with footmen running before and 
behind, even the beggars by the roadside would say, 
“There goes one who cannot hold his tongue.” 

“Don’t tell your secrets to Badahur,” they would 
go on. “He says more foolish things in a day than 
Hazar will ever say in his life. He talks and talks, 
and no one else has a chance to speak where he is.” 

All this used to trouble Hazar, for he knew what 
the people thought of their king. He used to lie 
awake at night thinking how he could cure the King 
of his talkativeness, but he could settle upon no 
plan, for the more he thought the more difficult the 
matter seemed. 

But the turtle was even worse than the King in 

[ 98 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


the matter of talking. He talked to the fishes, the 
parrots, the monkeys, and the birds all day long, 
until they were tired of the very sound of his voice. 
The fishes, as they lay under the bank used to say 



to each other, “He is a mischief-maker. He tells 
the cranes where our hiding-places are, and then 
they drag us out with their long bills and eat us.” 
He told Mirbah, the King-parrot, what the 
LOfG. [99] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


monkeys said about his tail, and that started such 
a quarrel between the parrots and the monkeys 
that it never will be patched up. 

“When the King takes the court away to the 
summer palace, let us hope that some one will in- 
vite the turtle to make a long visit elsewhere,” 
said the humming-birds. “He is a horrid gossip, 
even worse than Hazar.” 

By and by the hot days came and the King and 
his court went to their beautiful summer palace 
away up on the slopes of the mountains. No one 
asked the turtle to go anywhere and he was left in 
the pond. 

One day Hazar, who had stayed in the city to 
finish up some business before joining the King, 
was walking in the garden near the pond and saw 
two wild ducks alight on the ground near where 
the turtle was basking in the sun. 

As soon as the turtle saw the ducks he began to 
talk to them. “Where are you going?” he asked. 

“There is a place called the Golden Cave up in 
[ 100 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


the mountains where we used to live, and we arc 
going back there,” replied the wild ducks. 

“I should think that would be a very nice place,” 
said the turtle. “Is there a pond in the Golden 
Cave?” 

“No. But we have lakes and rivers, plenty of 



them, and they are very much better than such a 
pond as you have here. If you will come with us 
you can see for yourself.” 

Something of this kind was just what the turtle 
wished, for he was tired of living in the pond in 
the King’s garden. His tongue had made him so 
[ 101 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


many enemies that things were unpleasant for 
him there. 

“But I do not see how I can go with you to the 
Golden Cave,” he said to the wild ducks. “If I 
could fly it would be an easy thing to do.” 

“If you would like to go, we will take you,” said 
the ducks. “We will take the two ends of a stick 
in our bills, and you can hold on to the middle by 
your mouth. Just don’t let go of it, and you will 
be all right.” 

“Oh, that will be easy for me to do,” replied the 
turtle. 

“Indeed it won’t,” said Hazar to himself from 
behind the trees, where he was watching the ducks 
and the turtle; “you would have to hold your 
tongue, and that is something you could never do 
since you were born.” 

t Hazar finished up the business he had on hand 
and then joined the King in his summer palace up 
in the hills and as soon as they found a stick which 
would bear the weight of the turtle, the ducks flew 
up into the air with the turtle between them. 

[ 102 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


How the fishes did laugh as they looked at the 
turtle hanging from the stick by his mouth. “Don’t 
come back again, Talking Turtle,” they called after 



him. “We can get along very well without you.” 

“I don’t intend to come back! Keep your old 
pond to yourselves!” was what the turtle wanted 
[ 103 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


to say in reply, but he did not dare to, because if 
he opened his mouth to speak he would tumble 
right back into the pond again. 

So they flew on and on over the cities and villages 
and fields, and every time they stopped, the ducks 
cautioned the turtle to hold his tongue or he would 
be killed. 

Then one day as they were flying over a field, 
a woman who was working there called out, ‘Two 
wild ducks are carrying a turtle along on a stick!” 

This made the turtle so angry that he wanted to 
say, “You miserable woman, what is it to you?” 
but he controlled himself, although he bit the stick 
half way through in his rage. 

After a while the ducks and the turtle came 
to the mountains and flew directly over King Bada- 
hur’s summer palace. Some boys in the town 
below threw sticks at the ducks and called out to 
them, “Drop that fat old turtle. We’ll make soup 
of him!” 

This made the turtle so angry that he could no 
longer keep silence. He started to say, “Soup! 

[ 104 ] 


THE TALKING TURTLE 


You shall be made into soup yourselves, miserable 
children,” but as he opened his mouth to utter the 
first word, he let go of the stick and crashed down 



into the courtyard of the palace, where the King 
and a number of his courtiers were walking. Hazar 
ran to pick him up, but he was quite dead ! 

' [ 105 ] 



THE TALKING TURTLE 


‘*What do you think of this?” asked the King of 
Hazar. “Did the turtle drop from the sky as a 
warning to us?” 

“He was being carried through the air by two 
wild ducks,” replied Hazar. “With your Majesty’s 
permission I will tell you what I know about him.” 
And then he told the King what he had heard and 
seen in the palace garden. 

After Hazar had finished his story, the King was 
silent for a long time and then he said, “This dis- 
aster happened to the turtle because he could not 
hold his tongue.” 

Hazar bowed and the King was silent again. 
“It strikes me, Hazar,” he said at last, “that at 
times I talk too much.” 

All the courtiers looked at Hazar, expecting him 
to deny that the King could talk too much, or to 
say that it was a pleasure to listen to anything the 
King had to say, but Hazar did nothing of the kind. 
He quietly said, as he looked the King straight in 
the face, “Happy is the kingdom where the king 
knows his own faults !” 

[ 106 ] 





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“Happy is the king who has such a faithful coun- 
sellor as yourself, Hazar,** responded the King. “To 
remind us of the fate of this turtle, we will have a 
golden one set up in the palace.'' 

So a golden turtle was made and set up in one 
of the great halls of the palace, and whenever the 
King saw it he was reminded of the fate of the talk- 
ative turtle. He learned wisdom and discretion 
and how to keep silent when it was necessary, and 
instead of despising him, his subjects came to love 
and respect him. 



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